getting started

example

Whip up a file, main.js with some require()s in it. You can use relative
paths like './foo.js' and '../lib/bar.js' or module paths like 'gamma'
that will search node_modules/ using
node's module lookup algorithm.

install

usage

Usage: browserify [entry files] {OPTIONS}
Standard Options:
--outfile, -o Write the browserify bundle to this file.
If unspecified, browserify prints to stdout.
--require, -r A module name or file to bundle.require()
Optionally use a colon separator to set the target.
--entry, -e An entry point of your app
--ignore, -i Replace a file with an empty stub. Files can be globs.
--exclude, -u Omit a file from the output bundle. Files can be globs.
--external, -x Reference a file from another bundle. Files can be globs.
--transform, -t Use a transform module on top-level files.
--command, -c Use a transform command on top-level files.
--standalone -s Generate a UMD bundle for the supplied export name.
This bundle works with other module systems and sets the name
given as a window global if no module system is found.
--debug -d Enable source maps that allow you to debug your files
separately.
--help, -h Show this message
For advanced options, type `browserify --help advanced`.
Specify a parameter.

Advanced Options:
--insert-globals, --ig, --fast [default: false]
Skip detection and always insert definitions for process, global,
__filename, and __dirname.
benefit: faster builds
cost: extra bytes
--insert-global-vars, --igv
Comma-separated list of global variables to detect and define.
Default: __filename,__dirname,process,Buffer,global
--detect-globals, --dg [default: true]
Detect the presence of process, global, __filename, and __dirname and define
these values when present.
benefit: npm modules more likely to work
cost: slower builds
--ignore-missing, --im [default: false]
Ignore `require()` statements that don't resolve to anything.
--noparse=FILE
Don't parse FILE at all. This will make bundling much, much faster for giant
libs like jquery or threejs.
--no-builtins
Turn off builtins. This is handy when you want to run a bundle in node which
provides the core builtins.
--no-commondir
Turn off setting a commondir. This is useful if you want to preserve the
original paths that a bundle was generated with.
--no-bundle-external
Turn off bundling of all external modules. This is useful if you only want
to bundle your local files.
--bare
Alias for both --no-builtins, --no-commondir, and sets --insert-global-vars
to just "__filename,__dirname". This is handy if you want to run bundles in
node.
--no-browser-field, --no-bf
Turn off package.json browser field resolution. This is also handy if you
need to run a bundle in node.
--transform-key
Instead of the default package.json#browserify#transform field to list
all transforms to apply when running browserify, a custom field, like, e.g.
package.json#browserify#production or package.json#browserify#staging
can be used, by for example running:
* `browserify index.js --transform-key=production > bundle.js`
* `browserify index.js --transform-key=staging > bundle.js`
--node
Alias for --bare and --no-browser-field.
--full-paths
Turn off converting module ids into numerical indexes. This is useful for
preserving the original paths that a bundle was generated with.
--deps
Instead of standard bundle output, print the dependency array generated by
module-deps.
--no-dedupe
Turn off deduping.
--list
Print each file in the dependency graph. Useful for makefiles.
--extension=EXTENSION
Consider files with specified EXTENSION as modules, this option can used
multiple times.
--global-transform=MODULE, -g MODULE
Use a transform module on all files after any ordinary transforms have run.
--ignore-transform=MODULE, -it MODULE
Do not run certain transformations, even if specified elsewhere.
--plugin=MODULE, -p MODULE
Register MODULE as a plugin.
Passing arguments to transforms and plugins:
For -t, -g, and -p, you may use subarg syntax to pass options to the
transforms or plugin function as the second parameter. For example:
-t [ foo -x 3 --beep ]
will call the `foo` transform for each applicable file by calling:
foo(file, { x: 3, beep: true })

compatibility

Many npm modules that don't do IO will just work after being
browserified. Others take more work.

Many node built-in modules have been wrapped to work in the browser, but only
when you explicitly require() or use their functionality.

When you require() any of these modules, you will get a browser-specific shim:

multiple bundles

If browserify finds a required function already defined in the page scope, it
will fall back to that function if it didn't find any matches in its own set of
bundled modules.

In this way, you can use browserify to split up bundles among multiple pages to
get the benefit of caching for shared, infrequently-changing modules, while
still being able to use require(). Just use a combination of --external and
--require to factor out common dependencies.

methods

browserify([files] [, opts])

String, file object, or array of those types (they may be mixed) specifying entry file(s).

opts

Object.

files and opts are both optional, but must be in the order shown if both are
passed.

Entry files may be passed in files and / or opts.entries.

External requires may be specified in opts.require, accepting the same formats
that the files argument does.

If an entry file is a stream, its contents will be used. You should pass
opts.basedir when using streaming files so that relative requires can be
resolved.

opts.entries has the same definition as files.

opts.noParse is an array which will skip all require() and global parsing for
each file in the array. Use this for giant libs like jquery or threejs that
don't have any requires or node-style globals but take forever to parse.

opts.transform is an array of transform functions or modules names which will
transform the source code before the parsing.

opts.ignoreTransform is an array of transformations that will not be run,
even if specified elsewhere.

opts.plugin is an array of plugin functions or module names to use. See the
plugins section below for details.

opts.extensions is an array of optional extra extensions for the module lookup
machinery to use when the extension has not been specified.
By default browserify considers only .js and .json files in such cases.

opts.basedir is the directory that browserify starts bundling from for
filenames that start with ..

opts.paths is an array of directories that browserify searches when looking
for modules which are not referenced using relative path. Can be absolute or
relative to basedir. Equivalent of setting NODE_PATH environmental variable
when calling browserify command.

opts.commondir sets the algorithm used to parse out the common paths. Use
false to turn this off, otherwise it uses the
commondir module.

opts.fullPaths disables converting module ids into numerical indexes. This is
useful for preserving the original paths that a bundle was generated with.

opts.builtins sets the list of built-ins to use, which by default is set in
lib/builtins.js in this distribution.

opts.bundleExternal boolean option to set if external modules should be
bundled. Defaults to true.

When opts.browserField is false, the package.json browser field will be ignored.

When opts.detectGlobals is true, scan all files for process, global,
__filename, and __dirname, defining as necessary. With this option npm
modules are more likely to work but bundling takes longer. Default true.

When opts.ignoreMissing is true, ignore require() statements that don't
resolve to anything.

When opts.debug is true, add a source map inline to the end of the bundle.
This makes debugging easier because you can see all the original files if
you are in a modern enough browser.

When opts.standalone is a non-empty string, a standalone module is created
with that name and a umd wrapper.
You can use namespaces in the standalone global export using a . in the string
name as a separator, for example 'A.B.C'. The global export will be sanitized
and camel cased.

Note that in standalone mode the require() calls from the original source will
still be around, which may trip up AMD loaders scanning for require() calls.
You can remove these calls with
derequire:

b.add(file, opts)

Add an entry file from file that will be executed when the bundle loads.

If file is an array, each item in file will be added as an entry file.

b.require(file, opts)

Make file available from outside the bundle with require(file).

The file param is anything that can be resolved by require.resolve().

file can also be a stream, but you should also use opts.basedir so that
relative requires will be resolvable.

If file is an array, each item in file will be required.
In file array form, you can use a string or object for each item. Object items
should have a file property and the rest of the parameters will be used for
the opts.

If opts.global is true, the transform will operate on ALL files, despite
whether they exist up a level in a node_modules/ directory. Use global
transforms cautiously and sparingly, since most of the time an ordinary
transform will suffice. You can also not configure global transforms in a
package.json like you can with ordinary transforms.

Global transforms always run after any ordinary transforms have run.

Transforms may obtain options from the command-line with
subarg syntax:

$ browserify -t [ foo --bar=555 ] main.js

or from the api:

b.transform('foo', { bar: 555 })

In both cases, these options are provided as the second argument to the
transform function:

module.exports = function (file, opts) { /* opts.bar === 555 */ }

Options sent to the browserify constructor are also provided under
opts._flags. These browserify options are sometimes required if your transform
needs to do something different when browserify is run in debug mode, for
example.

b.plugin(plugin, opts)

Register a plugin with opts. Plugins can be a string module name or a
function the same as transforms.

You can call b.pipeline.get() with a label name to get a handle on a stream pipeline
that you can push(), unshift(), or splice() to insert your own transform
streams.

b.reset(opts)

Reset the pipeline back to a normal state. This function is called automatically
when bundle() is called multiple times.

This function triggers a 'reset' event.

package.json

browserify uses the package.json in its module resolution algorithm, just like
node. If there is a "main" field, browserify will start resolving the package
at that point. If there is no "main" field, browserify will look for an
"index.js" file in the module root directory. Here are some more
sophisticated things you can do in the package.json:

browser field

There is a special "browser" field you can
set in your package.json on a per-module basis to override file resolution for
browser-specific versions of files.

For example, if you want to have a browser-specific module entry point for your
"main" field you can just set the "browser" field to a string:

"browser": "./browser.js"

or you can have overrides on a per-file basis:

"browser": {
"fs": "level-fs",
"./lib/ops.js": "./browser/opts.js"
}

Note that the browser field only applies to files in the local module, and like
transforms, it doesn't apply into node_modules directories.

browserify.transform

You can specify source transforms in the package.json in the
browserify.transform field. There is more information about how source
transforms work in package.json on the
module-deps readme.

to your package.json. Now when somebody require()s your module, brfs will
automatically be applied to the files in your module without explicit
intervention by the person using your module. Make sure to add transforms to
your package.json dependencies field.

events

b.on('file', function (file, id, parent) {})

b.pipeline.on('file', function (file, id, parent) {})

When a file is resolved for the bundle, the bundle emits a 'file' event with
the full file path, the id string passed to require(), and the parent
object used by
browser-resolve.

You could use the file event to implement a file watcher to regenerate bundles
when files change.

b.on('package', function (pkg) {})

b.pipeline.on('package', function (pkg) {})

When a package file is read, this event fires with the contents. The package
directory is available at pkg.__dirname.

b.on('bundle', function (bundle) {})

When .bundle() is called, this event fires with the bundle output stream.

b.on('reset', function () {})

When the .reset() method is called or implicitly called by another call to
.bundle(), this event fires.

b.on('transform', function (tr, file) {})

b.pipeline.on('transform', function (tr, file) {})

When a transform is applied to a file, the 'transform' event fires on the
bundle stream with the transform stream tr and the file that the transform
is being applied to.

plugins

For some more advanced use-cases, a transform is not sufficiently extensible.
Plugins are modules that take the bundle instance as their first parameter and
an option hash as their second.

Plugins can be used to do perform some fancy features that transforms can't do.
For example, factor-bundle is a
plugin that can factor out common dependencies from multiple entry-points into a
common bundle. Use plugins with -p and pass options to plugins with
subarg syntax: